Communication systems are well known and consist of many types including land mobile radio, cellular radiotelephone, personal communication systems, and other communication system types. Within a communication system, transmissions are conducted between a transmitting device and a receiving device over a communication resource, commonly referred to as a communication channel. To date, the transmissions have typically consisted of voice signals. More recently, however, it has been proposed to carry other forms of signals, including high-speed data signals. For ease of operation, it is preferable to have the data transmission capability overlay the existing voice communication capability, such that its operation is essentially transparent to the voice communication system while still utilizing the communication resources and other infrastructure of the voice communication system.
One such communication system currently being developed with transparent data transmission capabilities is the next generation Code-Division Multiple-Access (CDMA) cellular communication system, more commonly referred to as cdma2000, or Wideband CDMA. Within such a communication system all remote unit and base station transmissions commonly occur simultaneously within the same frequency band. Therefore, a received signal at a base station or remote unit comprises a multiplicity of frequency and time overlapping coded signals from individual remote units or base stations, respectively. Each of these signals is transmitted simultaneously at the same radio frequency (RF) and is distinguishable only by its specific encoding (channel). In other words, the signal received at a base-station or remote unit receiver is a composite signal of each transmitted signal and an individual signal is distinguishable only after decoding.
Next generation CDMA architecture must be able to provide an array of services comparable to wire-line services. One such service envisioned for the next generation CDMA architecture is multicasting. By definition, multicasting is a method which provides the delivery of information to multiple destinations without transmitting the same information content to each destination separately. A communication system providing this service must be capable of assigning a common channel to all users participating in the multicast event. Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for channel assignment in a broadband communication system that is capable of assigning a common channel to all users participating in a multicasting session.